From impoverished roots, Ramsey aims to give back

Tom Ramsey has three full-time jobs. And even though his second job as the owner of the Pflugerville-based Snappy Snacks mobile catering company earned him $12 million in revenue at its height, Ramsey is certain that his role as an entrepreneur will never supersede job number one: family man.

“First and foremost my family: that’s the priority,” said Ramsey.

On a Friday afternoon at his Pflugerville office, sporting a bright yellow polo shirt and shorts, he ticks off his roles on his left hand. “Second is my Snappy Snacks. And my love is our organization, Celebration of Love.”

In Ramsey’s third job as director of the non-profit organization, Celebration of Love, he feeds an estimated 150 people every Friday from The Reaching-Out Center, a food pantry that is located on his sprawling commissary just west of Pflugerville. Every Christmas, the organization also plays Santa Claus to both Fort Hood families and at-risk children sourced from 11 independent school districts in Central Texas.

“It’s all about relationships, at the end of the day,” said Ramsey, who refers to his business as a “blended family” and whose contributions to the Pflugerville and Round Rock communities have earned him both notoriety and awards.

Round Rock City Councilmember Carlos Salinas describes Ramsey as, “someone that the community, particularity the Latino and less fortunate community, can count on to help in a variety of ways.”

In Snappy Snacks’ front office, numerous awards glint off of the walls, including the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Person of the Year award and the Department of the Army’s Commander’s Award for Public Service. Nestled between the awards is a photograph of the first family, signed by Michelle Obama herself.

The accolades and awards cap Ramsey’s unlikely climb from poverty in Oak Cliff, Calif., to an unfinished middle school career, to hustling in San Jose, Calif., where he endured a brief spout of homelessness after the 1989 earthquake that crumbled the small taqueria that was his livelihood.

Finally in 1999, Ramsey relocated to Pflugerville with $1,500 in his pocket, two catering trucks and a big vision to build a mobile catering company that both leased and sold catering trucks to independent contractors.

“I made a bold step in faith,” he said.

Years of buckling down financially and “eating a lot of frijoles and rice” slowly paid off as Ramsey built up the company based on the business model of his mentor, Jerry Staggorn.

“You’re only as good as the people behind you,” said Straggon, who offered Ramsey his first job as a truck driver in the mobile food catering industry. “I had the best drivers. I had the cleanest trucks. And that’s what Tommy learned.”

Fourteen years later, as the industry continues to mushroom, Snappy Snacks has grown to employ a staff of 12 and works with 60 independent contractors, including local favorites such as Chi’Lantro and The Peached Tortilla.

But rather than just sell or lease his catering vans, Ramsey requires each independent contractor to go through a training program that educates them about the industry, reinforces local safety codes and “sets them up for success.”

And therein lies Ramsey’s signature stamp, imprinted on all three parts of life: serving others, a value he credits to his born-again Christian faith and one that has repeated itself throughout his life.

In 2010 Ramsey ran into problems with the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department when they withheld permits for his trucks, citing safety concerns. He got on board with their agenda and helped to pass even more strict regulations for mobile catering trucks in Austin.

According to Ramsey, he did so to ensure a safe and clean product and dependable service for the public, even though that move earned him bad press from other food truck owners who claimed that he was trying to drive them out of the business.

Since its establishment in 2003, his Celebration of Love organization has answered nation-wide emergency calls, from Joplin to Katrina, to the Fort Hood shooting, when he sent flowers and food baskets to mourning families anonymously, to express kindness rather than fanfare.

“He believes that God has blessed him and his family,” said retired Army chaplin Jon P. Tidball, who serves on the Celebration of Love board. “He’s come from very meager means and now he has done well for himself and he’s trying to give back.”

A clump of people waiting outside of The Reaching-Out Center on Friday afternoon is another example of Ramsey’s service. He greets each person and makes small talk as they wait for the food pantry to open at 1 p.m. Later he would reveal that he was once a “food pantry child.”

“I have a passion that when these families come here, their dignity is lifted up high,” said Ramsey. “It’s not a handout, it’s a hand up.”

Recently, Ramsey opened La Placita, a mobile food court on Vision Drive, with a wholesale grocery store that caters towards the growing Hispanic community and a small stage for hosting weekly live music events.

And he continues his focus on family. His youngest of six children, Dillon, was born in 2010.

“I thought I was out of the baby business,” he laughed, “but no, I was very blessed to have another child, a very beautiful child who has given me a new life and new meaning to fatherhood.”

While he may leave Snappy Snacks to any of his six children or 13 grandchildren who want to inherit the business, Ramsey says that his hope for them is to continue his tradition of life-long service.

“I would hope that all my children and grandchildren continue the legacy of taking care of the needs of the families,” says Ramsey. “That’s the legacy I want to leave them. Not so much the business part. That’s their choice. But I would always encourage them to get their education and do better than Grandpa or Dad.”